Photos: Between Kathy and Wellington, 11 April - 13 June 08

To be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157605785295004/

Back to 'normal'? (group email)

I’ve finally made it to Wellington. It was much much harder to leave Mt Ruapehu than I expected (although I really should have known…). It was so good to be back there, catch up with people, meet new people and mooch around the mountain for a bit. Bex welcomed me back into her home with open arms and a much slimmer Basil-the-cat, and it was like I’d never been away. I got a dead good send-off - a dinner party with selected and random mates - and before I realised it, I was in my car driving south. I’ll be visiting a fair bit though.

It feels like I’ve been away from the mountain for yonks, but it’s actually only been about a week and a half.
Although I’ve secured a great job in the International Film Festival (running their main venue), arts-related work and festival work is thin on the ground. I stopped trying to plan in advance very early on in my travels. However, in the same way that that led to my accidentally following the rainy season around Asia, it also prevented me from considering the fact that the busy time for performing arts work is likely to be the warmer months of the year. However, there is one thing that picks up during winter (apart from skiing, of course): RUGBY! No, I’m not donning a skull-cap and mouthguard and hurling myself around a field (much as that would probably have been useful in my lamb encounter last October), but there is plenty of work around events such as the Tri-Nations. I’ve decided to take a dip in the hospitality world and will very soon be a casual ‘Corporate Box Host’ at the big Wellington Stadium. Schmooze-central - I’ll see how I get on.
I’m pretty happy with casual, temporary and short-term work as it leaves me free to be spontaneous and indulge in my beloved extra-curriculars. I’ve rejoined Wellington Batucada and am cooking up projects with them already. I’m finding my inner geek and attending Wellington Astronomical Society lectures (gravitational lensing, anyone?). The flat comes with mountain bikes and a kayak, so I’m going to try a bit of that to toughen up my bum muscles. I also extremely randomly popped up to Rotorua and Tauranga with a mountain-friend for a fabulous weekend exploring hot pools and coffee shops. There’ll be more of that.

All in all, life is cold but good. Having finally drawn a line under the Borneo experience, I’m starting to properly enjoy and appreciate my time in New Zealand instead of half-wishing I was somewhere else.

Charlie IV

To recap:

* Charlie I: Roz and Frank's wonderful dog in South Auckland

* Charlie II: Crazy ownerless jack russell on the orchard in Hawke's Bay

* Charlie III: My lovely blue Subaru Legacy

Now introducing Charlie IV:

This Charlie is of the feline variety. He is Emma and Marie's young, handsome cat and part of the housesitting job is to catsit him. He's extremely affectionate but also has some serious airs, particularly when it comes to food. I'm hauling out my best Supernanny techniques on him. But he's keeping me company through empty days and snuggles up to me all night, so he's worth the effort.

Aw bugger

I'm a change seeker. I thrive on change, challenges and adventure. I also suck at goodbyes, big time. I try to focus on the advice I was given a while back: I'm not dying, I'm not going to prison or to war.
But it's still hard. My wee stint on the mountain was not long enough and, much as I'm sure to stay the whole winter would have been too long, I wasn't quite ready to leave yet this time. Damn.

Assimilation

You know you're slowly assimilating into kiwi life when:
- you're itching to find out what happens next on Shortland Street (and you're excited that Hone Ropata's back)
- your hiking get-up includes thermal leggings under shorts
- 'sweet', 'far out' and 'yeah nah' feature regularly in your vocabulary
- you forget what it's like to share the road with other vehicles, but it's not too odd to share it with farm animals
- you've lost track of a lot of what's going on in the rest of the world
- you go to the supermarket barefoot
- it's normal for it to be freezing cold in July
- you drive the 100m to the cornershop (I'm never going to be kiwi enough to call it the 'dairy')